October 25, 2019

Cuba aims to double its aquaculture production by 2030

The country produced 27,549 tonnes of freshwater fish through aquaculture in 2018, and the Cuba Food Ministry aims to double that number to 49,376 tonnes by 2030, reported Inter Press Service.

The aquaculture industry has been booming in Cuba because of the industry's restructuring. Funds provided by the government, worldwide development aid and foreign investment resulted in steady fish feed supply for farms, increased pay for workers, more exhaustive fish farming and improved genes of species.

Harvests increased in 2011 when the first genetically improved fish species and sex reversal technique (using hormones to create a 98% male population) were implemented in Cuba, part of a technology sharing project with Vietnam.

Added to that was support from United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) 2015. The two-year programme between FAO and the Cuba government provided a budget of US$297,000 to increase the skills of aquaculture producers, as well as technical and scientific staff in breeding and genetics.

Loliette Fernandez, an FAO officer in Cuba, said this initiative, mainly related to the Aquaculture Technology Development Company (ATDC), aims to create a Cuba national programme to improve freshwater fish through genetics. Many international consultants are part of the initiative, the first of its kind in the country.

This ATDC initiative is concentrated on tilapia farming, principally concerning Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia (GIFT) used in aquaculture among other developing countries.

FAO support provided aquaculture farms with more space. Average pay for workers in the aquaculture industry had also jumped - to more than 58 dollars a month from only 13 dollars a month before. This is more than double the average salary of state employees, who earn 23 dollars in the same period.

-   Inter Press Service